I have this (I like to think) incredibly fabulous little feminist poetry chapbook micropress called Hyacinth Girl Press. One of my dearest and oldest friends, Sarah Reck, works on it with me and we’re about to start our third year of publishing. Each year when I start a new cycle, I get to announce the following year’s lineup. I like to plan ahead.

I feel like one of the things that has begun to happen with my press that I hadn’t consciously decided to do when I founded it, is that I’m not just creating a stable of fabulous poets – I’m trying to build a community of writers who I appreciate and I can see working together. I have a few poets who I’ve accepted multiple chapbooks from (Juliet Cook, Dana Guthrie Martin, and Laura Madeline Wiseman), and I don’t see that as being repetitive, but as strengthening my bonds with those poets. I’ve also now accepted work from 4 different male poets, 2 through collaborative manuscripts and 2 with their own books, and it makes my heart warm to know that these men 1. wanted a book with a feminist press, 2. are okay with the words “Hyacinth Girl Press” being on said book and 3. are feminist enough in their work that I am very very excitedly publishing them.

My poets may be scattered across the country, but in this totally dorky way I feel like many of them are some of my best friends now and my real poetry community, and hey, when I want to hang out with them I get to travel and that’s always fun!

My husband suggested that I read The Ladder of Divine Ascent for poetic inspiration, and I decided to write a poem a day based on the chapter titles for the book rather than actually read the book. I posted on Facebook about the project, and Lauren Eggert-Crowe asked if I would mind if she worked on the project with me, so we wrote the poems back and forth as a sort of call and response.

What genre does your book fall under?

It’s a chapbook of poems

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Well, I’ve been told more than once that I look quite a bit like Uma Thurman, so Uma Thurman can play someone. Alan Rickman and Patrick Stewart are welcome to do the audiobook version.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Seeking spiritual elevation through poetry

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

We’ve sent it out to a couple chapbook presses so far, and have a whole list to go through before we talk about not publishing through an outside press.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Lauren and I wrote the first draft in about 2 months. We’re badasses.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The Ladder of Divine Ascent? Ha.

Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble by Anne Waldman

No Eden by Sally Rosen Kindred

I’m bad at this question, clearly.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Well, as mentioned above, my husband pointed me toward The Ladder of Divine Ascent (which I’ve still not actually read. Go me. I think I’ll read it once the chapbook is published.), but then I felt as Lauren and I wrote back and forth that we created a character and an other she was set up with/against throughout the manuscript. So in a way, this created character drew me through my half of Divine Ladder. And obviously Lauren was a big inspiration. I’m not sure I would have actually finished this project had I tried to do it alone.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It’s inspired by an Eastern Orthodox text but was written by two heathens. Delightful heathens, I’d like to think, but heathens, nonetheless.